"Serena Williams ruined it for me" - Venus Williams says she "won't cry" as she lays bare her feelings about tennis retirement
Venus Williams recently revealed her feelings about retiring from tennis and opened up about how her sister Serena Williams' retirement caused speculation about hers too. The American player has played only two tournaments this year.
Williams's first tournament of the year was the Indian Wells Masters, which was held on March 7, 2024, where she squared off against Nao Hibino in the first round. Hibino grabbed the win with a score of 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, putting an early end to Venus' journey in the tournament. She faced a similar fate in her second and last tournament of the year, the Miami Open, where she was defeated in the very first round by Diana Shnaider with a score of 6-3, 6-3.
Days after putting an end to the speculations of her retirement, the 44-year-old appeared in an interview where she disclosed that during Serena Williams's retitement, many people mistakenly thought it was Venus who retited, which ruined the moment for her. However, she emphasized that she won't cry, as she has already given a lot to the sport.
"Yeah, as that moment gets closer. And Serena ruined it for me because as soon as she retired, everybody thought I retired. And sometimes I even think we're twins. So if you guys did think so we are, we are two separate people born on different days," said Venus Williams. "It's OK now, you know. But in any case, I always thought that I would just be just crying, you know, when I had to retire because like, it's all, you know, you spend your whole life just like programming your mind and do that every single day."
"It's the first thing you think about when you wake up and the first thing when you go to bed and like you dream about it and all these kinds of things. So now I realize that I, I won't cry because I've definitely given everything to the sport."
Venus Williams slams retirement rumors by announcing her presence in the sport
Even though Venus Williams has played less tennis this year, citing her injuries, she recently opened up about not retiring from the sport in an interview with The Irish News.
"I’m not done with the racket yet... At this point, it’s about picking and choosing places I want to be. Last year I really wanted to play in Miami – home – because I hadn’t played there in like five years," Venus Williams said.
She added:
"It’s nice to be in a place where I can pick and choose, but my game is always at a high level. Even if I’m not on tour, I always keep my game quite high."
Venus Williams has won a total of 7 Grand Slam titles, 14 Grand Slam doubles with Serena Williams, and 2 Grand Slam mixed.